Springtail, which is a company providing a new way to scale PostgreSQL, announced it has raised a $2.5 million pre-seed round led by Google’s early-stage AI fund Gradient. The oversubscribed funding round also included participation from Octave and angel investors.
Databases are known as the backbone of every software service. And Postgres has long been a developer favorite for its reliability and versatility. Modern platform services have simplified Postgres adoption, but scaling and managing database performance remains a challenge.
As developers hit a scalability wall with Postgres, they usually face two options: migrate to a different database solution or build custom backend infrastructure. And both paths are time-consuming distractions that divert focus from core product development.
Springtail works along with Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL, offloading and scaling read execution while the existing Postgres instance remains the trusted and primary store of data. This unique approach allows developers to enhance database performance without overhauling their application, rebuilding their infrastructure, or migrating their data.
At the core, Springtail is a cloud-based distributed database that separates storage from computation, providing seamless horizontal scaling for read-heavy workloads. And its architecture automatically distributes queries across multiple nodes, significantly increasing query throughput.
Springtail is headed by data and infrastructure experts with backgrounds from HP, NetApp, and Freshworks. And Craig Soules and Garth Goodson, second-time founders who met at Carnegie Mellon bring deep experience in distributed systems. George Szundi led go-to-market efforts for the team’s first venture – which was later acquired by Freshworks. Together, they combine technical depth with a track record of building successful software companies.
Springtail’s offering introduces scalable and on-demand read replicas for Postgres on AWS. Usually traditional replicas have to run continuously to stay in sync with the primary, But Springtail replicas share a storage layer and scale compute independently. This allows teams to spin replicas up and down as needed, reducing overhead and eliminating the cost of idle infrastructure.
KEY QUOTES:
“Migrating a production database is complex and time-consuming. It involves setting up new instances, transitioning schemas, updating code, and ensuring everything stays in sync. With Springtail, your existing Postgres instance remains in place, so there’s no need to replace the database or build new infrastructure.”
– Craig Soules, co-founder and CEO of Springtail
“The demand for scalable data solutions is surging, especially with the rise of analytics and AI in today’s applications. Springtail offers unparalleled out-of-the-box Postgres scalability, freeing engineering from database management and delivering cost and throughput optimization.”
– Zach Bratun-Glennon, General Partner at Gradient
“Springtail allows users to only pay for the performance they need, when they need it. This can potentially save developers up to 58% on Postgres read replication compared to Amazon RDS.”
– Garth Goodson, co-founder and CTO
